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Mac OS X Services in Snow Leopard

Mac OS X Services let one application supply its powers to another; for example, a Grab service helps TextEdit paste a screenshot into a document. Most users either don't know that Services exist, because they're in an obscure hierarchical menu (ApplicationName > Services), or they mostly don't use them because there are so many of them.

Snow Leopard makes it easier for the uninitiated to utilize this feature; only services appropriate to the current context appear. And in addition to the hierarchical menu, services are discoverable as custom contextual menu items - Control-click in a TextEdit document to access the Grab service, for instance.

In addition, the revamped Keyboard preference pane lets you manage services for the first time ever. You can enable and disable them, and even change their keyboard shortcuts.


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Doug McLean

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Published in TidBITS 461.
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04 Jan 1999 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

A New Script for Photoshop

by Geoff Duncan Send Email to Author

A New Script for Photoshop -- If your life revolves around Adobe Photoshop and Macintosh scripting, Main Event Software may have released your Holy Grail with PhotoScripter 1.0, a plug-in that makes Photoshop 5.0 AppleScript-aware. PhotoScripter exposes most of Photoshop's functionality to script control, sporting an enormous dictionary of terms, verbs, and classes that scripts can use to automate Photoshop operations. Via PhotoScripter, Photoshop can automatically batch-process images and integrate with other applications such as QuarkXPress and FileMaker Pro. PhotoScripter's dictionary is based on the AppleScript object model and offers straightforward scripting terminology (Main Event's Cal Simone is a longtime AppleScript advocate, and was involved in re-implementing Mac OS 8.5's AppleScript dictionaries). PhotoScripter costs $299 with discounts available for multiple copies. [GD]

<http://www.mainevent.com/>

 

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